Big Ten not soon moving any football championship to NY/NJ soon, basketball still an option in 2018

MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford won't get a Big Ten Championship football game before 2021, though one of the New York/New Jersey area's basketball arenas could still get a Big Ten Tournament in 2018. (Jason Towlen/MyCentralJersey.com)

So much for MetLife Stadium hosting a Big Ten Championship football game in the near future and for the idea that any of the New York/New Jersey area's three big basketball arenas would be involved in a regular rotation of the conference tournament.

One important caveat, however: The men's basketball Big Ten Tournament still has a very real chance of making its metropolitan area debut in 2018.

The Big Ten announced Thursday that its Council of Presidents/Chancellors unanimously approved a recommendation from university administrators for the football Big Ten Championship game to remain at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis through the 2021 season, as well as a rotational plan for basketball.

The men's basketball Big Ten Tournament will be held at the United Center in Chicago in 2015, 2019 and 2021 and at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis in 2016, 2020 and 2022. It will be held at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. in 2017, a move that generated a stir among traditionalists when it was announced last month.

No site has been announced for the 2018, though it is widely speculated that Madison Square Garden, where the Big East Tournament is held, could be the venue of choice. The Barclay's Center in Brooklyn is slated to hold the 2018 ACC Tournament.

The Big Ten and Big East recently became basketball partners on the Gavitt Tipoff Games, an eight-year arrangement for eight non-conference matchups per season between schools from the two leagues.

Bankers Life Fieldhouse, which has hosted the women's basketball Big Ten Tournament in 12 of the last 13 seasons, will get the event from 2017-22. Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., served as the event’s home in 2013 and will host again in 2015.

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